A total of 30% of Israeli students scores were ‘excellent’ in creative thinking compared to the OECD average of 27% resulting in Israel’s 11th ranking out of 63.
By Shula Rosen
A newly released study of students in OECD countries found that 30% of Israeli students excelled in creative thinking, placing Israel 11th out of 63 countries.
The study, the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2022 Creative Thinking Assessment, evaluated 15-year-olds in 81 countries, with 1,750 Israeli students participating.
Israeli students performed well despite a general worldwide downturn in results following the pandemic.
A total of 30% of Israeli students’ scores were “excellent” in creative thinking compared to the OECD average of 27%, resulting in Israel’s 11th ranking out of 63.
However, results were markedly higher for students in non-religious schools compared to those in religious schools (44% compared to 34% with an “excellent” score for girls, 36% compared to 34% “excellent” score for boys).
In addition, scores were higher in Hebrew-speaking schools compared with Arabic-speaking schools, where 61% of students showed “difficulty” in creative thinking, whereas only 15% of students in Hebrew-speaking schools showed similar difficulties.
Israeli students performed best in tests that demonstrated skills in “evaluating and improving ideas” and “solving social and science problems” but less well in tests for “written expression.”
Singapore was the highest-ranked country for the PISA tests, followed by Korea, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Estonia, Finland, Denmark, Latvia, and Belgium.
The Palestinian Authority ranked 59th in the assessment.
According to the PISA website, the purpose of the test is to assess “creative thinking” with an exam that “measures students’ capacity to engage productively in the generation, evaluation, and improvement of ideas that can result in original and effective solutions, advances in knowledge, and impactful expressions of imagination.”
The four areas of creative testing examined were “written expression, visual expression, social problem-solving, and scientific problem-solving.”
In each area, “students engage with open tasks with no correct response. They are either asked to provide multiple, distinct responses or to generate a response that is not conventional. These responses can take the form of a solution to a problem, a creative text, or a visual artifact.”